Tallahassee, FL –
At this time, I must confirm that Devaughn Darling, a freshman, linebacker,
from
Houston, Texas, was pronounced dead at 8:37 a.m. today by attending
physicians in the Emergency room at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.
Devaughn collapsed this morning at the completion of the team’s off-season
workout and was attended on the scene by the FSU athletic training staff.
The training staff contacted FSU Police and Emergency Medical Services as
they began to perform CPR. FSU police arrived at the scene and assisted
with CPR until EMS personnel took over and transported Devaughn to the
emergency room. He arrived at 8:00 a.m.

At this time, the cause of death is unknown. The attending physician has
recommend to the medical examiner that an autopsy be performed, but that is
the medical examiner’s call. Any further medical questions cannot be
addressed under patient confidentiality laws.

As many of you know, Devard Darling is the identical twin of Devaughn and
he is also a member of this football team. FSU coaches and staff have been
with him and will continue to be with him throughout this process. The
Darling’s mother has been contacted in Houston and is traveling here as
quickly as possible. The Darling’s father is en route and is being met at
the airport by Coach Bobby Bowden and others even as we speak. Coach
Bowden will spend the day with the family today. We will release a
statement from him later on today.

As you can imagine, our entire athletics program is shocked and grieving.
I would ask that you allow our student-athletes in particular some time to
collect themselves before addressing any media questions.

I know this is not a great deal of information, but it is all we have at
this time. I’d like to bring up our director of Athletics Mr. Dave Hart
and then I’ll try and answer any more questions I can.